USS PAMPANITO (SS-383)

THE FIRST DRY DOCKING - 1987

In
1987 there were three commercial shipyards in San Francisco and all of
them responded with bids. The three bids were very close so we chose the
yard that we felt that would do the best job, not the lowest bidder. The
chosen bid did not, however, include work that had to be surveyed once
the vessel was in dry dock. To address the potential problem of wasted
weld seams, for example, a price per foot to renew wasted seams was quoted
in each bid.

Pampanito left for the shipyard in February, 1987. It had taken
us five years to arrive at a plan of action and to accumulate the funds
necessary execute it. We knew that there would be additional work to be
done in the shipyard and we had funding available to go over the bid amount
by about forty percent.

Once Pampanito was up on the blocks and the marine growth was
removed, a survey was conducted to determine the extent of the additional
work to be performed. It was found that some of the problems we thought
would be extensive were not as bad as had been anticipated. There were
virtually no wasted weld seams, less than twenty linear feet, and the underwater
body was in very good condition. The submerged portions of the superstructure
were just as we had thought and repairs were needed. However, we found
some problems we had not anticipated. The screws had been removed and the
protective covers placed on the shaft tapers had deteriorated, our off
shore mooring system was chaffing the hull and the free flooding chain
locker had a few tons of mud that had accumulated when the flood ports
at the bottom were blanked off. The additional work was estimated and we
were still within the resources of our hull fund and the additional work
was authorized.

We also took the opportunity while Pampanito was in dry dock
to plan for future work that would need to be done in subsequent shipyard
visits. Several critical areas were identified that would be monitored
to evaluate the measures we were taking. Association staff took advantage
of the time to have the submarine all to themselves and carried out several
projects that could not be worked on while the vessel was open to the public.

Extensive documentation, in the form of written reports, photographs
and video tape, was done during the shipyard period. Shift-by-shift work
reports were kept in a log that contained a description of the work accomplished,
the weather conditions, materials used and a record of the shipyard work
force. An added unexpected benefit of the video taping was that while the
shipyard workers were being taped they were proud to display their best
work.

The shipyard period went very well. The job had come in on time and
on budget, and we had a much clearer idea of Pampanito's condition
and what her future needs would be.